AMEX hopeful seeking advice??

[JamesG]

So here's a quick summary of my situation, I just leased a 2013 Toyota Highlander SE on memorial day weekend for $400/mo (first payment down, 15K miles per year.  Sticker was $38 and I had to beat up their staff for 3 hours but got it done!).  Anyways, that brought to my attention how badly my credit utilization on my CC's was hurting me bc I was basically at 100% (I know I'm a moron...).  Anyways, I just paid off all 4 of my cards in full and I'm closing that stupid BestBuy card, I'm also going to have the owner of the closed Chase account pay it off as that's not an issue which would only leave me with my $1500 GE balance which I will pay off over the next 6 months while it has 0% interest.  I'm planning on spending 6 months in the garden to let my score heal a bit as I just oopened that business line of credit and swapped an auto loan for a lease.  

**What I want to know is come december which card should I apply for and which report(s) does AMEX pull, so I can monitor the correct one?**

Side note; per ScoreWatch my EQ was 680 but when the dealership pulled all 3 they said my best one was 640, of course they're using a auto loan model which I won't fair well against consider I've had 4 different auto loans in the last 18 months...I know stupid again, words of advice on that....1. ALWAYS take a used car to a mechanic before you buy it especially if it's a one off used car dealership 2. Don't buy a stick shift car for your wife because you think it'd be cool if she learned to drive one... : /  

I'm guessing that after paying down all my cards and spending 6 months in the garden I'll be up around 700, per scorewatch at least.  Anyways., any adivce is welcome!

[JamesG]

Forgot to mention, I have no derogs or late pays. Only negative factors are length of credit and over utilization

[jamesdwi]

get your UTL down below 20% in total with no card reporting more than 50-60% and you should be good for an AMEX charge card, A revolver should be in the cards early next year if you get your score up to 720, and you will get some back dating goodness on it if you get the charge in 2013, and AP for the revolver in 2014. The charge card is an important first step, you don't want to jump the gun and get an AMEX revolver with a toy 1-2k limit, when getting the charge card improves your internal score with AMEX and may help get you a better starting CL.

Pay down the car some to help things along prime banks don't really like to see 90% owed on Loans even if you are paying according to schedule.

[JamesG]

3 questions

1. By charge card do you mean the green card?

2. Which bureaus do they pull?

3. Not that I'm playing on applying for a revolver to start with but what is the downfall to being approved with a $1-2K limit? Is it hard to increase from there?

[jamesdwi]

1. Yes there charge cards are  the Green, Gold, prefered Gold ( recommended no fee for the first year best rewards), Platinum

2. 99% of the time they pull EXperian for charge cards.

3. It's a toy limit on a Prime card under manual review in the future they will notice that you got into AMEX by the narrowest of margins.
Yes you can recover from it with a CLI after 61 days. But really its better to wait the time to get a better starting limit and start out with a good CL. Toy limits and travel don't really work well, a 1 week rental of a car is $400 lots of rental companies put a hold on that much for the whole week. 40% of your credit lime is now tied up. Hotel for  a week is $400, you are now at 80% UTL. Even a tank of gas at some gas stations can put a $250 or greater hold on your account.  You are now over your limit. Before you pay for a single meal out or any other expenses or bought a plane ticket.

[JamesG]

Wow you have a lot of insight on this, final question.
Which of those 4 charge cards would you recommend I apply for?

[jamesdwi]

AMEX Premier Rewards Gold

AF waived the first year, unless you absolutely love the card and can put 10's of thousands of dollars on it you should PC it when your AF hits the following year, the Senior green or regular green are good choices unless they introduce another starter card.

http://www304.americanexpress.com/getthecard/learn-about/Premier-Rewards-Gold

[Open123]

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@jamesdwi wrote:

AMEX Premier Rewards Gold

AF waived the first year, unless you absolutely love the card and can put 10's of thousands of dollars on it you should PC it when your AF hits the following year, the Senior green or regular green are good choices unless they introduce another starter card.

http://www304.americanexpress.com/getthecard/learn-about/Premier-Rewards-Gold

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+1

If I were starting new, here's how I would apply.

1.  Get PR Gold 1st year fee waived with as high of a sign up bonus as possible.

2.  Before annual fee is due next year, downgrade to Senior Green.

3.  Apply for no fee MR Blue and/or Blue for Business (30% bonus on all points) for another 10K MR bonus.

Moving forward, use Blue while Sr Green confers full MR status to points earned.  All this for $35 represents an excellent value.

[Creditaddict]

Type out your email to Capital one Executive office AT ONCE! Tell them you want your limits on both cards raised to $5k and you want better rrewards and lower interest.

I have no idea if you pay AF or don't have rewards but ask if you do!

They will call you, they will coutner your reqests if the amount is to large.

Also you are probably good for the Amex Gold Charge NOW and then in 6 months you will be right in line with ANY Amex Credit Card you want!

What GE Business Card do you have that is reporting to personal credit?

[JamesG]

Sounds like a plan, also my income is around $60k. Will that be a negative factor?